Support stockings are used in patients, generally older, in particular in the framework of treating vascular pathologies and, in particular, in the framework of the treatment of the chronic venous disease of the lower limbs.
The fitting of support stockings requires providing a substantial effort in order to sufficiently separate the support stockings in such a way as to allow the foot to pass, then to slide the support stockings along the leg. This effort can be all the more so substantial when the limb on which the support stockings must be placed is wet, in particular after the bathing of the patient, or covered with a product, a textile layer or other, in particular after care carried out on the patient. In addition to the extent of it, the effort may have to be exerted according to different orientations that are sometimes not very natural, in particular when the patient has lost flexibility and cannot extend the foot and/or raise the leg.
The patients themselves generally no longer having dexterity, force and the flexibility required for the fitting of the support stockings, this gesture can be entrusted to an assistant such as a caregiver, home help, a nurse or other.
However, the assistant may need to repeat this physically demanding gesture a great number of times. Such a repetition can lead to muscular and/or joint disorders in the assistant and can dissuade the assistant from practicing all of the treatment and care required for the patient.
In order to simplify the fitting of the support stockings by the patient as well as by the assistant, assistance systems, known under the name of stocking puller, have been designed.
Such assistance systems are, for example, described in documents FR 2 818 883 and FR 2 951 059. They comprise two stretching members mounted on a support facing one another and which can be displaced with respect to one another in translation. Each stretching member comprises one or several retaining parts on each one of which at least one portion of the support stockings, in the vicinity of a fitting opening of the latter, can be positioned when the stretching members are brought closer to one another, and stretched when the stretching members are separated from one another.
However, the known assistance systems always require the user, patient or assistant, to exert a substantial effort in order to sufficiently separate the stretching members and to maintain them in position in such a way as to allow for the fitting of the support stockings.
In the same way, document US 2007/0084890 describes an assistance system comprising stretching members of which the conformation requires substantially separating them from one another in order to allow for the passage of the limb and, in particular, of the foot.